- published: 11 Sep 2011
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Joel Gordon Hodgson (born February 20, 1960) is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. In 2007 MST3K was listed as "one of the top 100 television shows of all time" by Time.com. Hodgson is currently "movie riffing" with fellow cast members of MST3K under the name Cinematic Titanic, performing live and producing content for DVDs and direct download.
Hodgson was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1960. He began his career in seventh grade as a magician and ventriloquist. Joel performed for local events in his hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and attended Ashwaubenon High School. Upon graduation, Joel moved to Minneapolis to attend Bethel College to study Theatre and Mass Media. While there, Joel further developed his magic act by adding comedy and began opening for musical acts at Bethel as well as performing in coffee houses and comedy clubs. Joel cites a Theatre of the Absurd class at Bethel for helping him crystallize the meaning of his comedy. In 1981 he won the Campus Comedy Contest and then the first annual Twin Cities Comedy Invitational in 1982. In November of the same year Joel moved to Los Angeles where he became a regular performer at the Comedy Store and the Hollywood Magic Castle, as well as the Comedy Magic Club. At the Comedy Magic Club, Joel was spotted by Late Night with David Letterman producer Barry Sand and three months later at age 22 had his network television debut. He later made four other appearances on the Letterman show, as well as four on Saturday Night Live as a guest act. Joel also was a featured performer on HBO’s "Eighth annual Young Comedians special hosted by John Candy" along with Bill Maher, Paula Poundstone, and the Amazing Jonathan.
Trace Beaulieu (born November 6, 1958) is an American puppeteer, writer, and actor. He is best known for his roles on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K).
For the first eight (1 at KTMA and 7 on Comedy Channel/Central) seasons of MST3K, Beaulieu operated and voiced the Crow T. Robot puppet and played the role of Dr. Clayton Forrester, who was the head mad scientist of Deep 13. At the end of a truncated seventh season, Trace Beaulieu left the series. Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl) replaced him as the head mad scientist and Bill Corbett took over the voicing and operation of Crow.
Beaulieu appeared as a semi-regular in Freaks and Geeks as the school's biology teacher, Mr. Lacovara. He also appeared in The West Wing episode "Bad Moon Rising". For the last few years, Beaulieu has been a writer for America's Funniest Home Videos. In 2002, he was the head writer, producer, and host of the pilot episode of the Animal Planet show People Traps. He has since starred in the 2010 computer game Darkstar: The Interactive Movie as first officer Ross Perryman.
Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral. He worked on several short-term media projects, including writing for the variety show Sunday Best, but was then unemployed for a long period.
Weinstein and Oakley eventually penned a spec script for Seinfeld, after which they wrote "Marge Gets a Job", an episode of The Simpsons. Subsequently, the two were hired to write for the show on a permanent basis in 1992. After they wrote episodes such as "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)", "Bart vs. Australia" and "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", the two were appointed executive producers and showrunners for the seventh and eighth seasons of the show. They attempted to include several emotional episodes focusing on the Simpson family, as well as several high-concept episodes such as "Homer's Enemy", "Two Bad Neighbors" and "The Principal and the Pauper", winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for their work.